Love, life and family from the Big Apple

:: NYC :: Lost & Found

I started this post 2 Mondays ago but never quite got around to finishing this as I was very distraught…

Saturday (Feb 22). Mr. P and I got dressed up and headed out for a fancy dinner with some friends who were in town. Because it was going to be all so grown-up, I decided to break out my Balenciaga giant envelope clutch for the evening.

It was drizzling and the express trains weren’t running, we caught a taxi downtown and I left the bag in the cab!!!!

For some unfathomable reason, I didn’t take down the taxi details (medallion / taxi number) that night. Mr. P who always check the back of the taxi when alighting didn’t pick up on the reflective hardware of the bag which had fallen into the floor. We paid in cash so there’s hardly a chance of locating the taxi.

It’s been 2 days since we filed a report with 311 and the 24th Precinct Police. I doubt I’ll be able to recover any of it.

The most annoying thing is losing my EAD card which costs a bloody fortune to replace – USD 380 (简直就是杀人放火).

Fast forward 10 days later.

A lady from the NYC taxi commission called to inform me they have tracked down the medallion (and hence taxi company) and gave me the contact details of the taxi co. The taxi co operator was then able to track down the driver and gave me his mobile number. What are the odds!

When I finally spoke to the driver on the phone, he told me he left the purse at a synagogue where he picked up one of the passengers after us, thinking the purse belonged to another lady. I thought that was it, another dead end. But Mr. Driver very kindly called me the next day with the exact location of the synagogue.

2 days later, we picked up my lost bag (2 weeks to the day I dropped it)!

How amazing is that? I know I was very lucky to have met a number of honest folks in my situation.

Much as everyone claim HK is so safe, people are so honest (wrt lost items in taxi), my experience says otherwise. The only time I lost something in a taxi in my 7.5yrs in HK (Nokia 6300), I never got it back. (Mr. P lost his phone and his driver drove it back to central for him the next day!!)

There are good (and bad) people in every city. This week I especially love NYC!